Education Cabinet Secretary (CS) Fred Matiangi on Tuesday 20th June 2017, while addressing teachers at the ongoing head teacher’s conference in Mombasa indicated that students representatives should be removed from the school’s board of management and the board be reduced from 19 members to seven.

CS Fred Matiangi on why students leaders should be banned from attending school boards

“We cannot have students in the school boards, which ideally makes them the principals’ bosses. These kind of things, which I call romancing of students must end,” said Matiangi.

Earlier, principals had complained over the huge allowances schools were paying board members and questioned the wisdom behind allowing a student to sit in the board.

Some 8,194 secondary school heads and 3,000 exhibitors are meeting at Mombasa’s Wild Waters Park for the school principals’ annual conference to deliberate on ongoing reforms in the sector.

“We have had cases where these students demand allowances. These students are now our bosses,” said Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association chairman Indimuli Kahi.

Matiang’i also directed that principals should vet those elected as prefects, saying last year’s unrest could have been avoided if schools had good school leaders. The CS said delays in the disbursement of the second term capitation grant was because of the overlap of the financial yew.

Matiang’i threatened to ban the Annual National Secondary Schools Student Leaders Conferences, alleging that in its current form it was contributing to indiscipline among students.